Introduction to Computing for the Social Sciences

MACS 30500
University of Chicago

September 26, 2016

Course site

https://uc-cfss.github.io

Major topics

  • Elementary programming techniques (e.g. loops, conditional statements, functions)
  • Writing reusable, interpretable code
  • Debugging
  • Obtaining, importing, and tidying data from a variety of sources
  • Performing statistical analysis
  • Visualizing information
  • Creating interactive reports
  • Generating reproducible research

print("Hello world!")
## [1] "Hello world!"
Variable Estimate Standard Error T-statistic P-Value
Intercept 35.70 0.72 49.55 0
Engine displacement (in liters) -3.53 0.19 -18.15 0

Other resources

Plagiarism

  • Collaboration is good – to a point
  • Learning from others/the internet

Plagiarism

If you don’t understand what the program is doing and are not prepared to explain it in detail, you should not submit it.

Evaluations

  • Weekly programming assignments (70%)
  • Final project (30%)

Program

A series of instructions that specifies how to perform a computation

  • Input
  • Output
  • Math
  • Conditional execution
  • Repetition

Write a report analyzing the relationship between ice cream consumption and crime rates in Chicago

  • Jane: a GUI workflow
  • Sally: a programatic workflow

Benefits of programming

  • Reproducibility
  • Version control
  • Documentation